Indian news round-up

Kapil Dev's loss is Tendulkar's gain, or so it seems. The Orissa State Bureau of Textbook Preparation and Production has decided to include a chapter on Sachin Tendulkar in the Plus Two curriculum only days after the Gujarat Government decided to scrap a chapter on Kapil Dev from the Standard X syllabus.

The most striking aspect is that the earlier syllabus included a chapter on Kapil Dev, authored by Sunil Gavaskar, but it was decided not to retain the chapter during the course review in April this year, soon after the match fixing allegations broke out.

The General Secretary of the Bureau, SN Ahmed said ``Sachin is an icon. More important, in these times, he is one of those with an absolutely clean image. The decision to include a chapter on Sachin was unanimous.''

Two Mumbai Ranji Trophy players Manoj Joglekar and Amol Rane, along with Kiran Powar and Maroof Khan, have signed profitable contracts to the tune of 3500 US dollars each to play club cricket in Los Angeles for ten weeks.

While Kiran Powar and Amol Rane have been signed up with the Hollywood Cricket Club, southpaw Joglekar and all rounder Maroof Khan have joined the Colts Cricket Club and United Cricket Club respectively. The four cricketers had represented the Victory Cricket Club in the recently concluded Independence Cup which was organised by the Southern California Cricket Association.

Mayank Khandwalla, the organiser of the tour along with former Indian all rounder Karsan Ghavri, told PTI in Los Angeles that this should serve as a new vista for the Mumbai and India cricketers to keep in touch with the game during the off season. Khandwalla added that since many Pakistani and Sri Lankan cricketers also play in the city league, it would be a good learning experience for the Indian youngsters.

Indian middle order batsman Rahul Dravid was dismissed for two as Kent slumped to 63/4 at stumps on the second day of the PPP Healthcare County Championship Division One match against Derbyshire at Canterbury on Saturday.

Kent started their first innings rather disastrously losing opener David Fulton (16). This brought in Dravid who came into the match with a first class average of 92.1 with Kent. But he was quickly sent back, caught by Matthew Dowman off Kevin Dean. The procession was not to end there as Edward Smith and Matthew Walker were soon dismissed by Dean. Kent still trailed by 216 runs with only six wickets in hand.

Meanwhile Indian captain Sourav Ganguly went wicketless in his 11 overs while conceding 24 runs on the second day of Lancashire's match against Yorkshire at Leeds on Saturday.